LogFAQs > #898295236

Design - The basic premise behind Pandemic (and copied in Forbidden Island) is really neat - you have an Infection Deck that the board "plays," targeting the board, and a Player Deck form which you draw cards to try to solve the crisis. The problem is that the Player Deck has some nasty surprises for you, which intensify the situation and cause the same cities to become infected over and over. Since that slate of cities is effectively random at the beginning of the game, each game is different because of it. It's elegantly designed.

You can't fully talk about Pandemic (this entire family of lighter-weight, perfect information coop games, really) without addressing the "quarterback" or "alpha player" issue. Reasonably, you can describe Pandemic as a single-player game, as there's no mechanism in place preventing the strongest player from dictating each other player's moves. As a result, your experience will depend on your crowd. I think the best way around it is to play with people who are able to let others make decisions while being willing to offer their own thoughts when asked for them. A friend of mine prefers the no-talking variant, which seems pretty damn brutal.

Pandemic Legacy's gameplay modifications are really neat. (spoilers for the game - it does have a storyline) The faded figure minis are also awesome, and the military twist is foreshadowed but still managed to catch me off guard. Always something new to think about, though it's considerably fiddlier than Pandemic. I thought the change in direction in December was fantastic.

Forbidden Desert has something different going on from Island or Pandemic. The game has a lot of elements that don't integrate quite as seamlessly - there's no "focus on this problem area" strategy ;you have to worry about the sun and about water (and refilling your water occasionally); you can lose for some reason due to a bunch of sand falling on a desert, which doesn't exactly make a ton of sense. But I really like some of the other ways it works - the subgoals aren't printed on your player cards, but rather on the board with locator tiles. The spatial aspect is fantastic, as you shift the modular desert tiles into the empty space. And perhaps shallowly, I adore the plane mini - you literally assemble the little model plane, and if sucessful, you place your pawns in it and fly away. HOW FANTASTIC IS THAT.

Future - Because the games are a puzzle, I tend to enjoy sharing them with newer gamers more. For that purpose, Forbidden Island is the fastest to play and the simplest to teach, and those are reasons enough to love it. But it's fun to save the world in the thinkier Pandemic, too. And of course, I haven't played Desert enough to tire of it at all - as I don't own it - so I'm still super-eager to explore it.

Pandemic Legacy S1 probably won't be touched again, but it was a great ride. And since we've replaced the friend who left our city, Pandemic Legacy S2 has a good chance of hitting the table someday. Someday...

Bonus questions - What is your favorite cooperative game? What is your favorite series of games? Do you like Legacy games?

Hint for #9 - the most generic eurogame theme of all time attached to a fighter jet
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness